


Crass

by deathwailart



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Angst, Being Hawke is Suffering, Gen, Implied Relationships, Male Character of Color
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2018-02-10 01:04:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2005056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathwailart/pseuds/deathwailart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes all that holds Benito together, especially when he's having to deal with every problem in Kirkwall, are the bad and often inappropriate jokes.</p>
<p>Written for the 30 day drabble challenge: crass</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crass

An awful lot of the time, Benito supposes that Aveline is right about him whenever she takes him aside after they've talked to someone and says that maybe he could remember that they're all in Kirkwall now and that he needs to stop making bloody insensitive jokes. He has to admit that the flopping through the streets line wasn't in the best of taste and that he can take it too far but sometimes he can't help it. Aveline is a guard, she's used to this sort of thing, she was a soldier too. She knows how to behave and well there was never much standing on ceremony in the Hawke household, not when he and his father both had that same sense of humour and when he grew up with people like Meeran around the house anyway. He doesn't expect her to understand but at the same time, a little part of him will always resent that she doesn't understand it.  
  
He came here with what was left with his family for a life they hadn't planned for. He came here to a city full of Templars where the Veil is so thin it sets his teeth on edge the way father had warned him of whenever they'd actually talked about it. He'd lost Bethany, his baby sister, mother blaming him for it, Carver understandably angry and bitter, living in a hovel in Lowtown with a greasy snake like Gamlen.  
  
Aveline doesn't understand looking over your shoulder your whole life.  
  
Aveline chose a life of service, of helping people. All of a sudden he's trying to scrape together the coin to buy a status so he maybe doesn't wake up in the middle of the night with his heart pounding, palms sweating as he watches Carver look so unsure of himself and his place in things that it hurts, so he can see his mother's smile again instead of having to lie in the dark pretending he doesn't hear her muffled sobs.  
  
Suddenly it's always Hawke to the rescue and he clearly doesn't know how to do any of that because he couldn't get his whole family out of the Blight safely. An apostate with the most ragtag group of friends it's almost laughable and he doesn't _want_ any of this, all he wants is a peaceful little life where he doesn't have to constantly worry and plan and look over his shoulder, where his family are whole and together and haven't had to live a life on the run, scraping to get by. Benito was taught it was always better to laugh than to cry and it's worked well even if one sometimes turns into the other more often than not, at least since he came to Kirkwall but Varric is kind enough to pretend not to notice, Isabela usually drags him off to the Blooming Rose or the Hanged Man, it depends where they are and Fenris understands and just lets him drink in silence, perhaps telling a story, letting Benito tell him one in return. Not even flirting badly with one another, just Tevinter wine and conversation and Benito getting a little drunk and sentimental and confessing that sometimes his terrible jokes are the only things that hold him together.  
  
That usually makes Fenris laugh and sometimes that's enough.


End file.
